Phantom Babies

Well, we did get rain yesterday, as you can see here on our banana tree. It wasn't much -- just enough to wet our whistle (4.4 millimeters, according to our local weather station). I heard one rumble of thunder in the afternoon but that's the only sign of the predicted "moderate to severe thunderstorms" that I encountered.

It was a day of surprises, and not just the rain.

First of all, Bailey's spaying was postponed. I took her in, and the veterinary nurse looked her over in the lobby and said, "Yeah, this isn't happening today." It turns out Bailey is having a "false pregnancy," a hormonal condition, and is even lactating as a result. (As I told the nurse, "No wonder she loves having her belly rubbed!") We have to wait for this false pregnancy to subside -- otherwise, if she's spayed now, her body might not know how to return to normality and her lactation could become more or less permanent. We're trying again on Sept. 10.

I asked the nurse, "There's no chance she could really be pregnant, is there?" We've had her for four and a half weeks, and the shelter had her for about two months before that. During at least part of that time she was supposedly in heat. (I assume she couldn't have become pregnant at the shelter, but you never know. ) A dog's gestation period is about nine weeks, and by four to six weeks the abdomen would be swelling -- so the nurse said she didn't think pregnancy was likely, because Bailey has "a nice waist."

But we'll keep an eye on her. That's all we need -- a litter of puppies.

Bailey got a new toy from the vet's office, which she promptly mangled.

A nicer surprise -- the insurance claim for my camera came through. They actually approved a payout of slightly more than I asked for! So that money should be in our account in five to seven days. I'm happy to put that whole episode to bed.

I also got a call from an unknown number, which always makes me wary. I answered it and got a rather garbled person checking up on my experiences with "transfers." I've been getting a lot of e-mails from car services that Dave and I used to provide airport transfers on our travels -- so I said they'd been fine but I hadn't needed them lately because I hadn't traveled much. The woman seemed a bit confused by that but said she'd e-mail me some information to get me better pricing. When I got the e-mail I realized she was talking about money transfers, which I hadn't done since I paid my last round of British taxes. She must have wondered why the heck I was talking about traveling in our phone call!

Otherwise I spent the day reading, cleaning, and archiving July's photos.

When I took Bailey for her afternoon walk, we passed the house with all the Chinese lanterns growing in the front garden. They look great, year after year. Dave and I have tried several times to grow them and we don't have much luck beyond a single season, so I would love to know this person's secret.

Finally, I compiled our recent wildlife cam footage into a video. Nothing earth-shattering here -- several itchy foxes (or maybe just one?), and fleeting glimpses of foxes and a brave neighborhood cat as they trot past the camera. At 1:22 we briefly see a fox doing that weird open-mouthed panting that I've seen in past videos; not sure what's going on there. At 1:27 you get a daytime shot of Bailey (those nipples!), followed by a nighttime shot in which she barks and Dave calls her inside. The cat is at 2:09 and again at 2:24, followed by more Bailey and more foxes.

As you can see, I moved the camera around a bit toward the end, trying to get a good vantage point to watch for Ratthew -- who did not appear at all, thank goodness.